The Empire Rises
by bespectacledfanwarrior
Summary: Unknown. Uncharted. Unexplored. Time is falling apart. An empire thought dead for a hunded thousand years rises again. Will the Alpha Quadrent unite in time? Will politics and petty differences be cast aside or will their freedoms be torn from them?
1. Beginnings

**A/N: This is my first Star Trek fan fiction so I would appreciate any feedback you have. It is the first part in my Ptolmian Wars series. Hopefully updates will be weekly. Happy reading!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Star Trek franchise, if I did there would have been a new series long ago. I am making no profit, and again, if I was I wouldn't be living in this miserable place called the north-west of England.**

Chapter One - Beginnings

"Lieutenant Lauren Monroe reporting for duty, sir," the dark haired woman clad in a mustard yellow Ops uniform stated stiffly, her back poker straight. The captain looked up from the Padd he was reading and smiled. Commander Riker looked Lauren up and down as though assessing her, rubbing a hand through his short bristly beard.

"At ease Lieutenant." She relaxed slightly.

"Thank you sir."

Captain Picard stood, straightening his uniform shirt, and walked round his desk to face her. His tall authoritative figure seemed to tower over her and she felt herself shrink inside. She kept her head held high however, her nerves firmly in check.

"Welcome to the Enterprise Lieutenant Monroe." She smiled and inclined her head politely. He handed her the Padd he'd been holding. "On this will be everything you need to know. Your commanding officer is Commander LaForge, you will report to engineering at 13.00 hours after you've been assigned your quarters, there you will be shown you station. Ensign Stevenson will take you to your quarters now."

"Aye captain and I must say I'm honoured to be working on your ship," she gushed rather embarrassingly. She winced, she sounded like an excited eleven year old. Riker chuckled and shook his head, Picard simply smiled. She sighed wryly and made for the door.

Riker wandered over towards the captain and stood next to him, facing the door that the newest edition of their crew had just walked out of. He stayed silent for a moment then turned to face Picard. "What do you think of her sir?" Picard nodded slowly, considering his answer.

"It's too early to tell yet but I think she'll make a valuable officer, her record is excellent."

"Her skills and experience yes, but I'm a little worried about the comment on her social skills, she may have trouble interacting with the crew." Riker said, watching Picard carefully for a reaction. The captain's face remained impassive. "We'll see how she fares soon enough Number One, we'll see."

Her quarters were larger than her old ones on the Atlantis but sparser; a wave of homesickness rolled over her. She'd spent the last seven years on that ship. It was small, carrying no civilians, just a crew of three hundred. She'd been an ensign, fresh out of the Academy, working on a small off-shoot of engineering, naïve and eager to please. She'd quickly learnt that to become respected and trusted with responsibility she had to be more laid back and mature. She now kept a calm, cool façade even in the direst of situations. However she also discovered her shields tended to repel people and she quickly found herself with very few friends. When she discovered she was being transferred to the Enterprise she promised herself she would try to be more open and friendly.

She took a moment to reflect. She'd been so different back then, a child really. Then she'd discovered what a serious business space travel really is. She smiled and took a blue patterned ribbon off her dresser and threaded it through her long black hair, tying it up in a ponytail. She always wore them, they'd been a gift from a family on Betazed. She'd met them on her second ever assignment, a virus had mutated on the Betazoid home planet which attacked their children's developing telepathic abilities. The Atlantis had transported a cure from Starfleet Medical to Betazed. Lauren had helped a little boy with the illness and his family had given her a dress woven from Betazed silk, jewellery and hair ribbons out of gratitude. If only that brash young woman who'd sneaked off her ship to hep a sick little boy could see her now, working on the flagship of the Federation. She slowly set down her mug of raktugino. Then she got slowly to her feet and began to walk through the automatic doors towards a new era of her life.

The engines hummed, lit up with a throbbing life only an engineer could understand. Lauren walked towards the main control panel in the centre of the room and brushed her fingers along the glossy surface, the keys illuminating her face with their glowing ethereal light. Now she was where she belonged. She resisted the powerful urge to get out her toolkit and examine everything in her path. The Enterprise had outdone her reputation – she really was magnificent.

At last Lauren turned to the heart of the ship. The pulsing blue coils of the warp drive filled engineering with a noise that almost sounded like a heartbeat.

"She's a beauty isn't she?" A soft voice said over her shoulder.

"Yeah …" She replied dreamily turning round. "Commander LaForge!"

Lauren straightened up and took a step back. LaForge was easily recognisable as Chief Engineer by the pips on his collar. He was wearing a VISOR and an easy going smile, the type that makes people seem instantly likeable. LaForge laughed.

"Hey, welcome to the Enterprise." He motioned for her to walk with him. Lauren smiled politely and grasped her hands behind her back.

"Thank you sir, it's a pleasure to be here." They walked round her new department together as she acquainted herself with the layout. Other crew mates, bending over computer terminals with complex drawings or sitting at desks wading their way through piles of Padds, turned round and nodded pleasantly to them.

"So I hear you were on the Atlantis before you were assigned here?" LaForge enquired, striking up conversation.

"Yes, she's a fine ship for her age. Our engineer Tommy Metcalf took good care of her." Lauren smiled proudly as she thought of her old ship.

"Hey I'd heard Tommy was promoted to Chief Engineer, we were good friends at the Academy. How's he doing these days?"

Their small talk continued until they reached the Communications Post, by then Lauren was almost beginning to feel relaxed. LaForge rested his hand on an empty swivel chair.

"This is your seat," he told her with a knowing smile on his face. Lauren tried to quell the disappointment that rose up inside of her as she was reminded for the second time that day she had been given the most boring job in engineering.

She had to stay sat down all day and constantly scan the surrounding twenty million kilometres for subspace communications. Then she would oversee the computer sorting the data into the categories: race, ship, coded/not coded and class A/B/C/D. Class A being important transmissions such as distress signals and Starfleet Priority, going down to D being whatever dumb-ass conversations Pakled traders have with each other. The computer could easily perform this task itself, but a little human intuition was often needed. Then she would approve the information and send it off to the Bridge. The most exciting thing that ever happens at the Communications Post is when a stray bit of ionized gas gets mistaken for a transmission and has to be filtered off to the Science Department.

Normally this kind of thing is left to the greenest of ensigns.

"I'm sorry I had to give you this position lieutenant," LaForge said, dragging her out of her thoughts. "We have a slight shortage of ensigns – a problem I'm gonna sort out as soon as we reach the next Starbase." His mouth curled upwards slightly.

"Feel free to run any tests or make any improvements you can, just make sure you inform the Bridge first." As LaForge seemed to have a knack of doing, his comment brightened her mood like white paint being washed over a black canvas. As she sat down wondering where that strange analogy had come from, LaForge spoke again. He seemed to be talking about the man sitting to the left of her wearing an identical rank insignia.

"This is Lieutenant Barclay; he works in diagnostics and your lines of work may occasionally cross so…get acquainted."

Barclay seemed to be constantly nervous. A strange wispy hairline framed his pale face and he was looking at her as if she was pointing a bat'leth at him.

"Pleased to meet you, I'm Lt. Lauren Monroe," she held out her hand. He leaned forward and grasped it in a weak handshake. His palms were cold and his expression strained.

"W-w-w-w…" he closed his eyes and inhaled; he opened them and started again. "Welcome t-to the Enterprise."

"Thanks."

"Hey Reg, you still coming to Ten Forward for synthale tonight?" LaForge asked. 'Reg' looked positively terrified at the prospect of a large social gathering.

"Y-yes, don't worry…I-I'll be there!" he stammered with a fake smile. Lauren turned round on her swivel chair and had to repress the sudden urge to spin on it like a kid, so she typed in her new command codes into the keypad instead. The computer beeped its cheerful confirmation. She sent a quick message to the bridge requesting permission to take the long range communications offline for five minutes to run a few tests. Seconds later she got a reply. If she was going to be bored stiff she might as well have everything running at maximum efficiency.

As she began to set up the first diagnostic, her name being spoken quietly drew her attention back to LaForge and Barclay. She carried on working so she didn't alert them that she was listening. They were talking together in hushed voices.

"…I can't do this Geordie. You know I can't talk to her."

"Look Reg, you're going to have to get over this. I _need _you to work with her," LaForge appeared a little frustrated, his knuckles where he was clutching the back of Barclay's chair were slowly turning pink.

"P-please Geordie," the stutter had returned. "Y-you d-d-don't know what it's like, being shy…" LaForge relaxed slightly and became more sympathetic. He placed a hand on Barclay's shoulder.

"I'm sorry Reg, there's nothing I can do. You should try talking to her, she's quite nice." Whatever he said next was lost because the computer chimed signalling the end of the test. As she poured over the disappointingly dull results she thought about what she heard. She felt slightly annoyed at Barclay for making her out to be some kind of monster. But then, she thought, it must be terrible to be so afraid of people and what they think of you. He'd been on the Enterprise much longer than she had; he'd earned the right to be sitting next to her, working with her, talking to her. No, she decided, I'm not going to judge him until I know him.

She felt a weight on the back of her chair as LaForge leant on it.

"Hmmm…I need to check those thermo-couplings…" he muttered, reading the results over her shoulder. "Hey do you want to come to Ten Forward with us tonight? Meet the rest of the team, make some new friends?"

Lauren froze, her old fears of becoming too close to people resurfacing. Really, she wasn't that different from Reg; her fears just weren't of the people themselves, but of the emotional attachments. But then she reminded herself of her earlier promise. She placed her brightest beam on her face.

"Sure, I'd love to!" She said back. She'd be ok after a couple of drinks of Guinan's fabled alcohol collection.

Lauren spent the rest of her shift working with Reg – as LaForge had later encouraged her to call him – on updating her equipment to function at peak performance. She found the work more challenging than she'd originally estimated, as years of bad maintenance by inexperienced, bored ensigns had caused the systems to be sluggish and unresponsive. She hummed happily as she got her teeth into a difficult equation. Next to her, Reg stared at the equation with a frown furrowing his brow. Lauren's face relaxed as she reached an epiphany then she turned to face her partner slowly.

"Not got it yet?" She asked slyly and began to type in another, even more complicated set of numbers. Instead of becoming even more confused, Reg's mouth opened in an 'o' shape.

"Q-quite simple r-really." After working with her for almost four hours straight Reg had started to open up slightly, underneath she found extreme intelligence and a dry sense of humour. He answered her next equation almost as soon as she typed it in and posed one of his own, it almost turning into a game. Lauren laughed in disbelief as her eyes scanned over the screen.

"Damn, I…" She froze. The console had begun to shake, the floor beneath her rattled too. She stood and steadied herself on the back of her chair, looking round. People were holding on to walls and desks and several had fallen over as the ship juddered violently. The red alert siren had started to wail and she was bathed in red light, soon adrenaline began pumping into her system.

She started to make her way over to the main console; all non-essential personnel were gathered round waiting for instructions. She turned towards the woman next to her and shouted over the commotion, "What's going on?"

"We've hit some kind of gravity well and we're falling in, we can't stop!" She replied pointing to the diagram on her screen. It showed a glowing blue net to represent space-time with the Enterprise being dragged into the centre where there was a black oval shaped gap. It was like nothing Lauren had ever seen before.

"What the hell's that?" She yelled. The woman turned back to her, some hair falling out of her tight brown bun as the shaking increased in magnitude.

"It's like a rip, a rip in the fabric of space." A rip in space? Lauren mused. What could cause such a thing?

Before she had time to think any more about it, LaForge called everyone over. They gathered round.

"Ok people, the impulse engines were badly damaged by the gravity well before we had time to put the shields up. Take a full diagnostics team down there and get them fixed now! I need those engines! No Barclay, not you." He lowered his voice. "There was a hull breach in Ten Forward. The emergency shields went up but the power is down and the door's stuck. We need to take the shields down to remodulate them to better protect us against whatever that thing is. I want you and two other people to get down there and get those doors open. Be quick, I can only give you twenty minutes. If we don't remodulate the shields by then the ship will be torn apart."

Reg nodded and pointed at Lauren and a tall male ensign next to her, they had both been listening in to the conversation and needed no explanations.

"Monroe, Williams, lets go." She nodded and grabbed a toolkit, following Reg out of the door.

The turbolifts weren't working so they had to take the Jeffries tubes instead. She followed Reg into the small dimly lit tunnel, Williams following closely behind. The cold grated metal dug into her palms and knees as she crawled and the ship's rocking threw her painfully into the walls. She could feel bruises forming on her shoulders. The muffled sounds of the ship which she usually loved to hear now echoed around her creepily. She had never been claustrophobic but she was extremely relieved to see a slightly wider junction where they would proceed to climb upwards.

Lauren felt herself relax with relief for a few moments when she climbed out of that dreadful darkness and into the bright lights of the corridor. She blinked in confusion at a sudden assault on her senses. Her eyes tried to adjust to the white light and suddenly she was surrounded by people shouting questions at her and pointing at the Ten Forward door. The ship juddered and she was thrown into a civilian woman. Blue silk immediately shrouded her vision. She stumbled away and squinted in Reg's direction. He was kneeling on the floor setting up the toolkit while being bombarded with questions. She could hear his pitiful stuttering attempts to get them to leave him alone and she started to become irritated.

"Right!" She shouted, marching over to him. "Can everyone please be quiet? Can everyone listen up please?" Her efforts to be polite seemed to be failing, her voice was easily drowned out.

"Oh sod it," she muttered. "SHUT UP!"

Everyone immediately fell silent. A few people jumped in alarm. Lauren smirked at their shocked expressions. She waited until she had their complete attention.

"Now I want everyone to very calmly climb inside that Jeffries tube and crawl down to Deck Nine. There is no need to panic, just be very careful and-" Her voice was cut off as she was violently jolted onto the floor. She could hear groaning as people clutched at bruised shoulders and thighs. Tools rolled in disarray. Lauren sprang to her feet.

"Everyone in, now, quickly!" She ushered them inside the Jeffries tube. She waited until the last had climbed inside then turned back to Reg. He had already ripped off the wall panel and was working furiously.

"Pass me the LMD Lauren," He asked. Lauren placed it in his hand and watched him charge up the circuitry. She looked over at the doors expecting them to slide open.

Nothing happened.

"Come on Reg…ten minutes left," Lauren reminded him nervously, rocking backwards and forwards, holding out her arms to keep her balance. Then all hell broke loose.

A huge explosion wracked the ship, sparks fell from severed wires hanging from the walls and Lauren was knocked off her feet again. And there was a sound. A sound that even in a crisis as big and unexpected as this she wasn't expecting to hear. Phaser fire. They were being attacked…and almost as if whatever Gods that reside in the universe were acknowledging her realisation, they were hit again and a bulkhead over her exploded. Huge chunks of debris rained down on her. She tried in vain to cover her head with her arms. The last thing she saw before falling into unconsciousness was the orange shimmer of three people beaming into the corridor.

**A/N: Ok, now the introductions are done the action can start!**


	2. Upon the Edge of a Knife

**A/N: Well I'm back with Chapter Two. For the disclaimer see Chapter 1.**

Chapter Two – Upon the Edge of a Knife

Lauren's eyes flickered open groggily, a grey haze settled like fog over her vision. A dull ache in her head was the first thing she noticed; it grew slowly in intensity until her eyelids drooped involuntarily. The pain subsided again. The next sense to return to her was smell. The thick musty stench of smoke enveloped her and burned the back of her throat. She submitted to the overwhelming desire to cough. Next the blank buzzing that filled her ears cleared as if someone were turning up the volume dial on a speaker.

But there was still a blank spot. At first she though her hearing hadn't fully returned to normal, then she realised there truly was something missing. She couldn't hear the sound of the ship's engines.

Maybe she wasn't on the Enterprise any more.

She opened her eyes again. Thankfully, the fog had cleared and she looked straight ahead, fearful of moving her head again. She was lying on her back facing the ceiling. The beige tiles were definitely Starfleet design.

So why couldn't she hear the engines? Then she realised: a dampening field.

_The interference from the spatial rip must be so great it's draining the power from everything electronic around it. Well that rules out Comm badges and Phasers_

Finally she heard three things and put the missing pieces together. The first thing was the snipping of wires being cut – Reg was still working on the door. She quickly calculated how long it would take to get the door open without power. She concluded that by the sound of things, she could only have been out for a couple of minutes. The second and thirds sounds were less welcome. The metallic clangs and blunt impacts of hand–to–hand combat.

Lauren struggled to stand up, kicking rubble out of her way and waving dust away from her face as she looked around. Her eyes widened in shock at what she saw. Reg was working in a panicked, almost hysterical state. His face was ghostly white and stained with streaks of dust and sweat. Behind him, three humanoid aliens were trying to get at him; Ensign Williams parried each blow of their short curved blades with increasing exhaustion.

The alien boarding party towered over Williams, they were tall and muscular, two males and a female. In appearance they looked human, with thick black hair and olive skin. They wore gold plates of armour, moulded to the contours of their bodies, a gold helmet adorned their heads and thick grey trousers were tucked into heavy gold boots. A weapons belt was slung from their waists. They were each gripping two curved golden blades. A final alien lay dead on the floor.

Lauren watched, paralysed with shock, willing herself to move her frozen limbs but already knowing it was too late. Her hands slid down the wall, sticky with sweat, strands of her plaited hair falling into her face. The three aliens pushed Williams further and further back until he was trapped in a corner, his one short blade, stolen from the dead male, inadequate against their two.

Lauren couldn't suppress her scream of terror and fury as Williams was kicked to the ground, his weapon out of reach. The female stood over him, her blade raised above her head. Then slowly she swung it down through the air, gracefully dropping onto one knee and plunging it deep into his chest. Her whole body emanating power as she pulled the sword out, now shining with wet blood, and got to her feet.

The three turned, their attention now focused on Lauren. She quickly scanned the ground, searching for any weapon she could find. She lifted a broken pipe off the pile of rubble blocking off the rest of the corridor and balanced the cold metal in her hands, trying to ignore how her hands shook. She couldn't afford to think about Williams now. She shifted her weight into a fighting stance. The aliens grouped together and advanced forwards. She closed her eyes thinking; _protect Reg, I just need to hold them off long enough to get the door open._

She looked over at Reg; he was watching her with wide eyes, crouched in front of the access panel, his hand holding a wrench hovering in mid air.

"How long left?" She shouted over. Her voice snapped him out of his reverie. His eyes glanced at his watch.

"Three minutes!"

She inhaled hysterically and screamed back, "Well keep working then! I'll hold them off as long as I can!"

She turned back to the intruders and shifted her feet wider apart, testing her balance. The tallest male, obviously the leader, laughed condescendingly. His eyes were mocking. Lauren realised with a shiver of horror that they were black. Completely black. His pupils engulfed his whole eyes like a demonic night hunter, they glinted with a controlled passion – a desire to kill.

"Do you really think a weak female like yourself can beat three Ptolmian warriors with nought but a fragment of bulkhead?"

So they were called Ptolmians…

She had to admit, they had a point. She thought, eying their swords nervously, feeling hopeless without a Phaser. However, her anger against them made her snap back at them. "Yeah? Well you have a 'weak' female amongst you too!"

"She is not a female! She is a warrior!" The Ptolmian roared.

"Well I can be a warrior too." Lauren stated coldly and tightened her grip on her weapon. Williams' senseless death was so fresh in her mind all her rationality and self preservations were forgotten.

"We shall see," he replied softly, an ominous tone in his voice.

His muscles rippled with power as he swung his blades above his head. With a strong, quick stroke they swooped down onto her, slashing and ripping. Although she had prepared herself, Lauren still gave a cry of alarm and only just managed to ungracefully deflect the force of the blows. Her legs buckled and she stumbled, kicking dust up into the air. Miraculously, the swirling metallic cloud engulfed the Ptolmians and left them coughing and shouting in confusion. Lauren pressed her advantage. She leapt over to the dead Ptolmian body and uncurled his limp hand, discarding her weapon, taking his. She saw the fractured reflection of the other Ptolmian approaching in the broken computer panel. Still on her knees, she spun round, gripping the blade in both hands, slicing his stomach. He doubled over, clutching his wound. Lauren smashed the handle of her sword into his face and he fell to the floor with a shaking thud.

Lauren dragged herself to her feet, her bruised battered body aching painfully. She stepped over the unconscious body in front of her. She slowly brought her head up to face the two remaining Ptolmians; there would be hell to pay for defeating their leader in such an undignified manner.

The female stepped forwards, her hands gripping her two swords. Her midnight hair streaming over her shoulders like a flowing river, shining and beautiful, but unlike Lauren's, it was dark and evil. An aura of back power surrounded her, more terrible than anything Lauren had ever seen before. If she had thought the male was terrifying, he was just a child to this woman. Lauren wondered if all Ptolmian women were like this.

"No, just the warriors." The woman answered her thoughts.

"You're telepathic!" Lauren exclaimed. She was starting to feel slightly like Reg's human shield, she had no chance.

"Indeed, I have mercy though; surrender now and I shall make your deaths swift and painless."

Lauren thought this woman was either insane or had a really twisted sense of kindness.

"Mercy my arse," she replied. This woman couldn't be all powerful, she had to have a weakness. Lauren scanned her body and found it, her lower abdomen was completely bare, her olive skin glistened with a thin layer of sweat. Lauren raised her stolen sword.

"I tire of this nonsense, we will now slay both you and your companion. That door will never open and no human on your ship will survive this day." The Ptolmian told her confidently.

"Well you obviously don't know humans very well," Lauren replied, her voice laced with threat.

The Ptolmians braced themselves against the swaying floor then sprang forwards. Their blows came fast and relentlessly. Lauren found herself immediately on the defensive. Her arms ached with every blow and her hands were slippery with sweat on the leather handle of her blade. Strangely, panic didn't overcome her and instead she found herself falling into a steady rhythm. Block, dodge, lunge, miss, jump over the next trap planned for her… _Whoa! Where did that come from?_

Lauren gripped hold of the nearest object she could find which was, unfortunately, the female Ptolmian. The ship rocked and swayed harder than ever and knocked her off her balance. The Ptolmian snarled and tried to shove Lauren away from her, Lauren fell backwards and dragged her down with her, the female's black hair tangled between her dirt-covered fingers. They both fell over. Lauren groaned in pain as the heavy weight fell on top of her. The swaying ship sent them sliding across the floor and into the wall.

The Ptolmian forced her hand trapped between their bodies towards her belt. Lauren heard the sound of a dagger being unsheathed from its holder and saw a flash of gold. The Ptolmian raised the blade in her hands and Lauren grabbed hold of her wrists, forcing them away from her. She suddenly realised her vulnerability. Her beating heart was centimetres away from the cold cruel metal, one slip and it would go plunging in. The livid face was close enough for her to feel the hot laboured breath on her cheek. A fierce growl and the knife dropped until it was nearly touching her skin. Lauren gasped, her face reddening with effort. She didn't want to die. She turned her head away.

With a last bust of energy, she slammed her knee into the woman's vulnerable stomach and flipped them over so she was lying on top. She punched her in the face several times until she passed out and forced the dagger out of her hands. She inhaled sharply and stabbed the Ptolmian in her arm before she could change her mind. The blood loss would be enough to severely weaken her but not kill her.

Lauren clambered to her feet and remembered she had left the other Ptolmian to his own devices. She turned, imagining the grinning face of Reg's murderer waiting to finish her off. Instead she found an extremely shocked Reg staring down at the unconscious form in front of him. Lauren raised her eyebrows incredulously. She was about the comment on the unlikely scene before her but Reg cut her off.

"W-we only have a minute left. H-help me pull the door open. I've cut the lock."

Lauren ran over and gripped one side of the door.

"One…two…three…" They both pulled until bit by bit the door slid open. Lauren reeled backwards, a gaping hole almost the entire length of the room had been blasted out of the wall. For the first time she actually saw the rip.

It was mesmerising.

Like a whirlpool in space, distorted blues and greys swam in a seemingly never ending line, ending far beyond her line of sight. It was constantly moving in an entrancing dance. It reminded Lauren of pictures she had seen in her old astronomy book of the Aurora Borealis, the northern lights. It had the same supernatural aura about it. The epicentre was a blinding white light. Huge asteroids, dust and gas clouds sped past them, ensnared by its unforgiving pull. When they reached the centre they vanished, swallowed up by the fabric of space and time.

The people in Ten Forward had been watching the phenomenal sight in terrified awe, entranced by its swirling power. When she and Reg entered everyone's heads snapped round and some leapt to their feet. Lauren stood at the side of the door and shouted, "Everybody out! Quickly! They're going to take the shields down!"

People started to head for the door.

Lauren rechecked her watch.

"Forty seconds!" She screamed.

They broke into a run.

_Thirty seconds…_

Guinan grabbed her two most expensive bottles of alcohol and a gun from under the bar, knowing they'd be sucked out into space if she left them.

_Twenty seconds… _

Guinan was the last to leave.

_Five seconds…_

Lauren and Reg pulled he doors to, panicking every time they stuck a little. The seal shut.

_Three…two…one…_

The roar of air rushing out into the black vacuum could be heard from the corridor. Then it died down and the shields slowly came back to life.

Lauren could imagine the whole of engineering gathering round, praying they'd got out in time as LaForge gave the order, every milligram of their draining power being poured into the shields. She wondered morbidly how long it would be before life support failed.

All of the adrenalin was fading out of her system. A sudden feeling of exhaustion overwhelmed her and she leant her back on the door, slowly sliding down to the floor. She hugged her knees and rested her chin on her arms. She looked around; the Starfleet Officers were calming down the civilians and clearing away the rubble from the caved-in ceiling that was blocking off the rest of the corridor. She overheard Guinan talking to Reg.

"I suppose I'll have to do some redecorating now, won't I? Well the first thing that's going is all that Starfleet beige and peach, I'll do it myself in the middle of the night if they refuse to change the colour scheme from pastels to something bearable," she said cheerfully. Reg didn't look quite sure if she was joking or not. She was, as usual taking everything in her stride.

Lauren was suddenly aware of a strange humming pulsing sound, it was growing louder and louder by the minute. She stood shakily and walked over to Reg, he was staring round apprehensively.

"What is that?" She asked him. "I've never heard anything like it. It's like it's all around us, not coming from any particular source."

Reg nodded slowly. "I-It's like it's t-tangible. L-like we're…" He searched for the right word, trying to describe the strange sensation. "I-it's like we're swimming in it."

"It must be the rip," Lauren concluded. A sudden need to know what was going on propelled her to her feet.

"Come on!" She said dragging Reg up with her. She ran over to the pile of rubble blocking the corridor off. She started pulling chunks of it away. Finally a hole appeared. She wriggled through head first and landed hard on the floor, shortly after Reg landed on top of her. He mumbled an apology and rolled off her, blushing and stuttering. She scrambled to her feet and tried to yank a huge chunk of solid metal away from the Jeffries tub hatch. It wouldn't budge. She groaned in frustration and sprinted to the end of the corridor where there was a small window.

She pressed her face against the glass, Reg hovered over her shoulder. They were now much closer to the warped twisted space. Lauren couldn't help but admire its silver and blue tongues of gas that floated in the centre, shooting out at random intervals like flames from a dragon's mouth. Asteroids and shimmering cosmic dust floated around them, entwined with luminescent wisps of gas. She began to feel dizzy. They were still falling in at an alarming speed. A great rumbling rattled the floor and she watched as a great copper coloured ship span past them. It was definitely a warship. Banks of weapons like she had never seen before were mounted all along the hull. It span into an orbit round the rip which quickly decayed and they plunged into darkness like water going down a plug-hole.

Then as the Ptolmian ship had done a moment ago, the entire ship tilted sideways. Lauren fell onto her shoulder as she tried to stand precariously on what had been the wall. The rushing sucking noise was almost deafening by now.

"The artificial gravity must be malfunctioning!" Reg shouted over.

"We have bigger problems than which way up we are!" She yelled back, pointing at the window between her feet. "Look!"

She knelt down and looked through the tiny window. The thin fingers of gas were brushing against the hull like hand clamping down on them, pulling them in.

"We're going in!" Reg cried.

The ship began to accelerate, spiralling into the core. Lauren clenched her fists so hard her nails drew blood from her palms. She felt so helpless. All she could do was kneel there and wait for whatever happened next. She couldn't help but think she was waiting to be crushed into oblivion.


	3. An Empty Nightmare

**A/N: Hi, new chapter! I hope you all enjoy this, please review.**

Chapter 3 – An Empty Nightmare

Darkness fell. Outside the tiny window it seemed as though the whole universe had ceased to exist. The tiny gems of light faded away as a haze of shadow wafted over the ship. All the outside noise was muffled, until finally, it vanished. It seemed like the only thing in the whole of creation was their one tiny ship, like a single fish in a dead ocean.

The other Starfleet officers had long since removed the debris from in front of the Jeffries tube hatch. They had probably taken everyone down to a lower deck where they would be safer. Lauren had been too preoccupied to notice, she was more interested with what was going on outside. She noticed now however, now that the unnerving silence had settled over them.

It was broken by a light overhead buzzing and flickering. The fabric of Reg's uniform rustled as he shifted uncomfortably. Lauren's pupils travelled from left to right across her eyes. Little whirlpools of disintegrated metal dust from the Phaser fire spiralled from the ceiling to the floor in an entrancing shimmering procession. The lamp shivered and hummed out of life. Only the glow from the end of the corridor illuminated them now, casting long shadows over their faces.

"What happened?" Lauren asked Reg, her whispers sounding as loud as if she'd shouted in the overwhelming silence. Reg didn't answer.

"Are we in the rip?" She asked fearfully.

"Yes." A flame of panic flared up inside of her, spreading from her stomach to her throat.

"Do – do you think this i-is like a tunnel and there's an-n-another end?" Lauren's years old stutter had returned under the stress. If Reg noticed he didn't mention it. Instead he gave her the answer she'd been praying he wouldn't give.

"I d-don't know."

What if there wasn't another opening? What if there wasn't a way out?

Drifting…

…powerless…

…in the black barren plain of eternal nothingness. She suspected there wasn't even a vacuum out there. It was the true meaning of complete emptiness.

Alone.

"No!" She said out loud forcefully. "We got in here so we can get out too."

She climbed to her feet and walked carefully along the wall until she reached the Jeffries tube hatch. And stopped. It was on the ceiling.

"Reg we have a problem," she stated, almost deadpan. She placed her hands on her hips and looked up, cursing the artificial gravity. Reg caught up with her and followed her gaze.

"Oh."

Lauren sighed in exasperation. She leant back on the wall – well, ceiling – and rubbed her hands over her face. She nearly poked herself in the eye when a console exploded above her with a bang and a shower of sparks. Before she had to orientate herself there was a whooshing sound and the ceiling burst into flames. The hungry orange flames were already spreading rapidly and already thick putrid smoke was filling the corridor. Lauren dove out of the way and just seconds later the next console exploded right where she had been standing. The corridor was quickly becoming a roaring monstrous furnace. She waved her arms in front of her face, clearing the smoke. Her hand pushed Reg stumbling forwards to an area where the air was cleaner.

"We…we need…we need to…get out of here!" She screamed, her voice punctuated with fits of coughing. Reg was bent double coughing and merely nodded weakly.

Lauren cast a look at Williams's body and wished they had time to take it with them. Then she looked over at the unconscious Ptolmians and felt a slight sense of remorse for them, they'd never survive the fire and it didn't really feel right for anyone to die unconscious.

The brief moment Lauren had spent dawdling had already cost them valuable air. Panic overrode all other emotions and she whipped her head round searching for an exit with her streaming eyes. She had to get out, she just didn't know how.

The stifling heat clouded her mind, she strained herself to think clearly but her head remained murky. A feeling of helplessness was quickly overwhelming her.

"The-the turbolift shaft!" Reg yelled over to her. Lauren cocked her head up like a dog catching a scent, the glint of clarity returning to her eyes.

"Perfect, the artificial gravity will make us stick to the wall," she said back and started to hurry over to the doors. But Reg hesitated.

"B-but getting…artificial gravity t-to…to function properly will be a number one priority," his worry dissolved into a fit of coughing, he held his chest and clutched at the wall. This and then the billow of smoke which then obscured Reg from her view made Lauren make a snap decision.

"We'll run down to Deck N…Nine th…then take the Jeffries tubes from there!" She shouted and reached blindly into the grey haze and grabbed Reg's arm and dragged them both over to the automatic doors. Reg gained his composure enough to help her wrench one of the doors open. Lauren slipped through uncomfortably on her side, braced herself then dropped a few feet onto the metal wall, inhaling huge breaths of the clean air. Darkness descended immediately and the clanging from her hard landing echoed round the dark tunnel. The small rectangular door shone like a spotlight, the rays of light bouncing off the exposed circuitry and pipes. There was a small thump and an "Oof!" and Reg landed next to her.

"We'll run, come on," Laren encouraged him, her voice reverberating in the narrow space. She squinted down the shaft, it seemed to go on forever, fading into the distant darkness. If the gravity were to switch she would fall…and fall…and fall…

Suddenly her plan began to feel like less and less of a good idea. She took a shaky breath, her pulse racing. She'd always been scared of heights. Her weakness. Her failure.

She broke into a run. Her thumping heart pacing her pounding feet, the darkness swooping round her like a swarm of bats. She could hear Reg panting behind her. In a sudden moment of madness she nearly laughed out loud as she imagined Picard and the bridge crew stuck to the wall, engineering would be in turmoil though. She could now see the dim white outline of the next set of turbolift doors.

"Nearly there!" She shouted back over her shoulder. Her hair blew round her face as she ran and her feet were burning with the pressure of running. So close…

She felt a swooping sensation in her stomach, her legs flipped and she started to fall.

"No!" She screamed and flailed for the ladder rungs but it was too late – the gravity had returned to normal.

A hand grabbed hold of her wrist. Reg was clinging on to the bars and leaning down to pull her up; but he wasn't a particularly strong man and her hand was slipping out of his grasp. She looked down, she couldn't see the bottom, it seemed to stretch on forever, never ending, descending into the darkness. She screamed in terror as she dropped another inch.

"Try to find the ladder with your feet!" Reg yelled, fear and panic seeping into his voice like a poison. Lauren, too scared to do anything but comply, kicked her legs in front of her. Her shoe hit something hard. She wrapped her ankle round the ladder rung and pulled herself closer. Her second foot connected with the ladder with a resounding clang. Her heart gave a jolt as her hand slipped again. Reg was now only holding on to her with the tips of his fingers.

"I'm going to try and grab hold of the ladder!" She shouted up, no longer caring how much her voice shook.

She only had one shot at this.

She bit her lip hard to stop her teeth chattering and squeezed her eyes tightly shut, two tears slipped down her face. She inhaled deeply and swung her right arm backwards, building up momentum. Then she brought both arms forward, letting go of Reg's hand. For a moment there was nothing but empty air. Then her fingertips hit the metal bars and she scrabbled at them desperately. Her right hand clamped firmly round the cool ladder rung. She locked her elbow round it and her body was jolted out of its fall.

For a moment they stood still, listening to the sound of their own heavy breathing and the faint crackling burning sounds echoing down from Deck Ten. Finally Lauren wiped each of her hands in turn on her trousers and started to make the short descent. Soon the chink of Reg's Starfleet regulation boots joined her.

She wearily slid the turbolift doors open and heaved herself up onto Deck Nine, squinting in the bright light. Her overexerted muscles strained with the effort. The rolled onto her back and lay with her eyes closed. She was exhausted but she forced her eyelids open and looked left. Reg was slumped against the wall, he looked a mess. Sweat as glistening on his skin, his hair was plastered to his scalp and neck and his face, hands and uniform were coated with grime and soot.

Lauren wondered if she looked the same and experimentally lifted a lock of her bedraggled black hair. Suddenly self-conscious and sat up, turning away from him. She dragged her fingers through her hair in a makeshift comb and smoothed it down with her palm. She scrubbed at her eyes and cheeks, realising her tears would have made tracks in the dirt on her face.

She stood and turned back to Reg, who was already standing.

"A-are you alright?" He asked shyly. She stood as close to him as she dared and attempted to gain eye contact with him. She placed her hands on his shoulders.

"Thank you," she said softly. "You saved my life back there."

Reg blushed scarlet and looked away uncomfortably.

"I-i-it was n-no trouble," he stuttered. Lauren had the sudden urge to hug him and, shocked, stepped backwards. There was an awkward tense silence, then she bent over and tugged the Jeffries tube hatch off the wall.

"After you."


End file.
